Some men who do mundane things for fun came together and formed the Dull Men's Club. Great Big Story thought they were interesting enough to make a video about. That in itself negates the very idea of the club. However, when dull people get together, they can be pretty extraordinary. They represent such a variety of odd hobbies that you might discover one you're interested in. Beyond that, these men (and a few women) embody the idea that taking pride and joy in simple things pays off in the long run. (via Laughing Squid)

Chief meteorologist Ted Pretty of Fox5 in Las Vegas was sent out to do a human interest story on fireworks for the Fourth of July. It did not go as planned. Select text to see spoiler: the kid is his son. (via reddit)

Thursday, June 29, 2017

The Vienna Chamber Orchestra was performing Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony No. 4 in Izmir, Turkey, when a wandering music fan decided to join them onstage at the amphitheater. He's a good boy, so deserves first chair in the violin section, Except he'd rather listen than play. He knows his limitations. The conductor was amused. You can imagine what the musicians who couldn't see what was happening thought when the audience started laughing and applauding at an inappropriate time in the music. (via reddit)

A few years ago, I was astonished to discover there are young people in the internet who can name every country in the world. They learned them from a song featured in the TV show Animaniacs, which I missed by being an adult. It's a delightful song. And now we have a remix from movies you know and love. Goes pretty darn fast, doesn't it? The Usual Suspect managed to find a movie clip of every nation in one film or another, and edited them together in perfect rhythm. (via Tastefully Offensive)

When Philippe Kahn rushed his wife to the hospital to give birth in 1997, he had his camera, his laptop, his phone, and his soldering iron (which just happened to be in the car with his other tools). He wanted to share pictures of the new baby girl with family and friends immediately. So he spent the labor time figuring out how to do it. The result was the world's first camera phone. Because 2,000 people got to see Sophie the day she was born, we now have selfies, Instagram, and citizen journalism. (via Laughing Squid)

Elizabeth Sweetheart is the Green Lady of Brooklyn. She loves green so much that everything in her home is green, her clothes are green, and even her hair is green. In this report from Great Big Story, she explains why she goes green all the time. (via Laughing Squid)

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Sara Carson does some amazing things with her dog Hero, as we saw a few months ago. On their televised audition for America's Got Talent last night, they performed a pirate-themed routine that had Hero wielding a sword! The crowd loved it, but the judges didn't. Except for Simon Cowell, who threw his weight around and got Carson and Hero into the next round. You can see the extended scene here. (via Tastefully Offensive)

A new video for the song Immigrants (We Get The Job Done) from Lin-Manuel Miranda's album The Hamilton Mixtape relates the immigrant experience with performances by four rappers who are either immigrants or the children of immigrants. Uproxx tells us about the video.

K’Naan, a Somali Canadian, Snow Tha Product, a Chicano child of Mexican immigrants, Riz Mc, a British Pakistani whose parents moved from Pakistan to England in the 1970s, and Residente, a Puerto Rican rapper from San Juan, all relate their experiences growing up as immigrants or first generation citizens of their respective nations, highlighting the way that America (and England) exploit the cheap labor provided by immigrants while still only affording them second class status.

It's the first official video from The Hamilton Mixtape, an album of songs from the musical plus songs inspired by the musical.

Lions roar, cougars scream, and cheetahs …meow? We know that cheetahs don't roar, and can purr like house cats, but did you know that a cheetah will sometimes meow? I didn't, either. Found at The Daily Dot, where you can also hear a tiny lion cub try out his adorable roar.

The YouTuber who goes by the name "walter santi" (Walter is his/her dog, and Santi is the cat) tells the story of an injured stray cat who came to their house and asked for help. The video shows his wounds and may be disturbing for sensitive souls. You'll be glad to know the cat is fine now. Here's an update video taken 40 days later, showing him chasing around like he was never hurt. (via Laughing Squid)

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

The song "みんながみんな英雄" ("Everyone is a Hero"), from the Japanese singing group AI, became a big hit in 2016. The video is gorgeous, and full of wacky scenes depicting heroes from different folktales coming together. You might recognize the tune as "Turkey in the Straw." That song has a peculiar history in Japan, where it is known as The Oklahoma Mixer. Read about it at Metafilter.

When you think of autonomous cars, you think of Google and Elon Musk and the idea of trucks with no drivers hauling loads down the highway. But why not think of the fun these cars can have?

Oh hello lovely machine, emancipating yourself from function... You look adorable, you know? Yes dear, you were built to be autonomous, it said so in the campaign brief.No rush – getting from A to B was never an exciting idea to begin with, for your kind. Dance yourself clean, pull your metal frame apart and let the sun burn through your circuits. Ride your autobiography, guided by the beauty of your code.

Director Julius Steinhauser of f°am Studio in Germany brings us Autonomous Rolf, a Mercedes Benz with a mind of its own, and a sense of fun that even the laws of physics cannot stop! (via Nag on the Lake)

Monday, June 26, 2017

Italian photographer and conservationist Bruno D'Amicis set a camera up in a forest in the Apennine Mountains, trained it on one beech tree, and let it record for an entire year. This video contains clips of that recording that show the diversity wildlife that passed by, stopped to mark their territory, scratch their back, or take a bite. The song is "Have You Ever" by Brandi Carlile. You can see D'Amicis wildlife photography at Instagram. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Every year, the world's top animal stuffers and fish carvers meet up to show off their skills and compete for cash prizes. Emily Graslie of Brain Scoop works at the Field Museum in Chicago, but she was excited to attend the World Taxidermy & Fish Carving Championships in Peoria last month. Graslie can't contain her enthusiasm as she wanders among freeze-dried fish, animals made from completely different animals, recreations from scenes in nature, creatures in funny poses, and animals the judges had to look up to see what they're supposed to look like. (via Mental Floss)

I have an ongoing project to make posts for mental_floss articles I wrote way back when that I do not have an archive for. Here's another one, from 2007.

Last week, a chandelier made of Gummi Bears made the rounds on the 'net. I was inspired to look up the history of the Gummi Bear. Did you
know Gummi Bears were first produced in 1922?!
Candymaker Hans Riegel called them "dancing bears". It wasn't until
1981 that they became widely available in the United States. Besides
appealing to kids' tastes, Gummi Bears turned out to be useful in many
other ways. Check them out in an article I wrote for Mental Floss.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

For a long time, I thought the only difference between olive oil and standard vegetable oil was the price. But would you ever find yourself dipping bread into plain vegetable oil, even with spices added? Olive oil is special, and Reactions, from PBS Digital, is here to tell us why. In this video, we get a chemical explanation for olive oil's benefits, plus glimpse into the manufacturing process and some advice on using your oil. My advice: Start any meal by sautéing onions and garlic in olive oil. After that, it really doesn't matter what you add, it will be good.

Where does a 380-pound gorilla dance? Wherever he wants to. Zola the gorilla lives at the Dallas Zoo. He's 14 years old, but he has a sense of fun that other gorilla adults don't often show. He especially likes his pool. Zookeepers say the pool is not just for fun, it's for enrichment. You say tomato, I say tomato. The video was so delightful that folks immediately added a soundtrack. The resemblance to a certain movie was evident to Derek Mozer.

The Sonoma Marin Fair in Petaluma, California, crowns the World's Ugliest Dog every year. And most years, a Chinese crested has won the title. But not this year! Congratulations to Martha, a 125-pound Neapolitan mastiff who took the top honor on Friday. Martha is notable for her loose and droopy skin, and her lack of enthusiasm for the contest. Why show off when you can lay down and take a nap?

The dog, from nearby Sebastopol, was rescued when she was nearly blind from neglect by the Dogwood Animal Rescue Project in Sonoma County, where the contest was held. After several surgeries, she can now see again, Zindler said.

The only animal in this year's contest too big to be held by her handler, Martha beat out 13 other dogs, most of them the kind of older, smaller dogs who win here.

Martha won $1500, a trophy, and a trip to New York City. Read more about her at CBS News. Gizmodo disagreed that Martha was the ugliest dog in the contest, so they posted a gallery of their top five picks, in which Martha only placed fourth.

Learn about the importance of vaccines with parody rap song performed by eighth graders! No wait, really, this is not what you'd expect from that first sentence. It is actually very well done. The new lyrics are set to the tune of "My Shot" from the Broadway musical Hamilton. The song was researched, written, sung, shot, filmed, and edited by students of the Nueva School in California. (via Digg)

Deric Ó hArtagáin of TV3 was giving a weather report Friday morning on the show Ireland AM when some weather happened to him. His comrades back at the studio could not contain their laughter, although they might have felt a little guilty about it. You could say they were blown away, but not as much as Ó hArtagáin. Ó hArtagáin was a good sport about it. Let me type that name again: Ó hArtagáin. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Friday, June 23, 2017

When the automobile started taking over the streets, people were justifiably afraid of getting hit by one. In response, a device was tested in England in the 1930s that acted as a "cow catcher" for humans. Just a flick of the switch, and the Safety Scoop deployed and scooped up the pedestrian before he knows what hit him. Literally.

I'm sure you have the same thought I did upon seeing this. If the driver sees a person in the road in front of him, why wouldn't he just hit the brake instead of the device switch? That eventually occurred to motorists, too, because the device never did catch on. At Atlas Obscura, you can read more about the Safety Scoop and see a gif of another such device from 1927.

In 1985, snowboarding was still fairly new at ski slopes in the U.S. Slope operators hated it, and the people who did it. Watch a 1985 CBS news report on the phenomenon. We can assume that eventually, the slope operators saw which way the wind was blowing -or more accurately, where the money was coming from. And the snowboarders grew up a little. (via Digg)

We celebrated the beginning of summer when school was out, then again over Memorial Day weekend, and now that the solstice has passed, it is really REALLY summer! You've been out of school three or four weeks now, and what have you crossed off your bucket list? About three weeks of video games, that's what. You might get around to going to the beach next month, and maybe camping in August, and you might remember that novel come September. Also, the color of your room will be okay until next summer. This is the latest comic from Alex Culang and and Raynato Castro at Buttersafe.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

This Bengal cat is aptly named Loki, because he's both clever and mischievous. He likes to play hide and seek. This video captures Loki's favorite hiding place -in the dresser! Once he shuts the drawer, you'd never think to look for him there! Unless he purrs with satisfaction, of course. Loki's owner, josht1212, says they closed this room off to him after the video was made, because they're not sure if he can get out of the drawer on his own. I bet he could. (via Laughing Squid)

Remember the guy that turned his kids' Little Tykes Cozy Coupes into Mad Max-style vehicles? It turns out he works in the film industry. Ian Pfaff http://pfaff.squarespace.com/ took his daughter Junior and his infant son Benji out to the desert and let them loose. A few specials effects later, they've recreated the apocalyptic world of the car chase movie Mad Max: Fury Road. Just like the movie, this is short on dialogue and heavy on mayhem. Uh-oh! (via Digg)

Some municipal buses just drive by a bus stop if there's no one waiting to get on. If you need to get off the bus there, you ring a bell or push a button to let the bugs driver know. This bus in Halifax, Nova Scotia, had a non-functioning button, so they installed temporary workaround.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, this technology has been in use longer, so they know they should install the chicken out of reach of children. Genius!

Philando Castle was shot in his car after police pulled him over for a broken light, with his girlfriend and young daughter in the car. This week, the officer who shot him multiple times was acquitted of all charges. Trevor Noah addressed this better than anyone else I've heard, on The Daily Show. He added his personal experience in a "between the scenes" unaired segment.

A juvenile orangutan at the Jersey Zoo https://www.durrell.org/wildlife/visit/ was caught trying to establish his independence from his mother. She was not having any of it. The scene played out like a sitcom, and got an appropriate soundtrack. The dialogue is not difficult to imagine.

Mom: Come along, Junior, let's go.
Kid: Aw, Mom! I wanna play some more!
Mom: But it's time for lunch.
Kid: But I have having fun!
Mom: Don't you want some nice greens so you'll grow big and strong?
Kid: Haha, you can't catch me!
Mom: why you little… come back here!
Kid: Haha!
Mom: I swear, you are just like your father!

The United States Postal Service released a new stamp that uses thermochromic ink to give us two different images on one stamp. The eclipse stamp is a commemoration of the total solar eclipse that will cross the U.S. on August 21. (via Metafilter)

Inside the Tolstoy Family Reunion. Almost 300 of Leo Tolstoy's descendants live all over the world.Star Wars: 10 Unsung Heroes Behind A New Hope. You might be surprised at those who worked behind the scenes to bring the saga to life.